E60 | Special Olympics Episode with Mark Henry (The World’s Strongest Man)

[00:00:00] Donnie Maib: Welcome to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Mae. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to athletic performance, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness, and sports nutrition.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the team behind the team podcast. This month, we have a special Olympic edition episode, and we interview the the most awesome. Mark Henry. And before we get into some of this episode, I want to welcome Billy Crawford to the podcast. He’s interning here this summer, and Billy’s going to have some stuff to say here.

So, Billy,

[00:00:49] Billy Crawford: welcome to the show. Appreciate it, Coach Donnie. it’s a true honor to be on the podcast, with you and also with Mr. Mark Henry. this is something I’ve been involved with for a long time, professional strawman and strength sports. I’ve known Mark since I was really little, so it’s definitely a privilege to be on the panel with you all today.

Mr. Mark, this, this episode is just gonna be, it’s, this, this man is very, I guess looked upon in the world of strength. You know, he is a two time Olympian, he’s won the, the, the Pan American Games, he’s a professional straw man, probably one of the strongest human beings to ever walk the planet. his accolades stack up like no other.

This man has, the heaviest super toe of all time, which is when you combine your squat bench and deadlift and your clean and jerk combined. so if you want to talk about measurements on a barbell, this guy has the biggest accolades, accomplishing those types of lifts and not just on the barbell, but Mr.

Mark Henry is multiple world records and straw man with stone lifting and other old time feats of strength. but not also that he’s had a tremendous career, a long lasting career in the WWE, which went on for over 25 years and Mr. Mark Henry’s worked with some of the best in the field. But I think everyone’s in for a treat for this episode today.

[00:01:58] Donnie Maib: No, Billy, I agree. And, Billy, just want to thank you for everything you’re doing for us this summer, helping with the podcast. Billy has a, not only a passion, but a history in strongman. And so that’s why Billy’s definitely vital for this interview. Billy, I would say too, just to add to that before we play the episode.

Wouldn’t you say that Mark Henry, he’s one of the most strongest, impressive human beings that’s ever walked the planet, but equally impressive, he’s a person of what, just kindness, humility, care, he loves people. Would you, you can speak to that a little bit.

[00:02:30] Billy Crawford: I would say he’s, when you, when you see him, he’s definitely a, A giant of a man when you’re physically speaking, but also to within his heart.

He’s a, is a very kind and loving and, and a faithful man and the way he walks his life on a day to day basis. he’s not just a, a big, huge guy who lifts heavy weights. He’s also got a heart and compassion for people around him. So that’s something that truth that speaks true volume to who he is as a person.

[00:02:51] Donnie Maib: Yeah, he’s truly a special person, athlete, human being. he gives back, to his, to so many people. I know he’s helped me a lot through the years I’ve known him for a long time. So hopefully. To all our listeners, this will be an incredible episode, dial in, tune in, share across your platforms and hey, here’s the, the interview part one, enjoy, and we’ll see you on the flip side.

With that, our special guest, good friend of mine, but world champion, man of all Talents and abilities. Mark Henry, welcome to the show.

[00:03:24] Mark Henry: Thank you, Donnie. Thank you, Billy. I watch you since you was a little kid. Appreciate it. Mark wipe your nose and now to see you in

[00:03:36] Billy Crawford: college. I appreciate it. Thank you. You made it.

I’m trying to make it. I’ll tell you. I’m not the world’s strongest man, but

[00:03:47] Mark Henry: handsome guy,

[00:03:48] Donnie Maib: Mark, you know, Again, thank you for, we know you’ve got a lot going on. You’re a busy guy and just so humble and gracious to get back. What’s been going on? We know your son, congrats to Jacob. Give the listeners a little bit of what’s going on with you right now. Your fam, we’re going to get into your history in a minute, but give us what’s going on.

[00:04:04] Mark Henry: I retired from pro wrestling. in 2019, right on the onset of COVID, and just focused on my family. My son is, as you mentioned, state champion wrestler, went to Oklahoma, the evil empire, the enemy, he, I guess he just had to, he just had to stick it to me. All them years of me telling him what to do, this is how you get back at me.

Go to OU. Ain’t that horrible. But I’m proud of him. I’m proud. Me too. And I’m happy for him. I gotta ask a question. But I’m telling you, on that campus, it was hard dropping him off at Norman.

[00:04:50] Donnie Maib: So Mark, are you gonna put on that maroon a little bit? You’re gonna have to, right? Oh, maroon. They maroon?

[00:04:57] Mark Henry: Oh, you talking about that?

You talking about A& M? Because that Oklahoma crimson and cream, I’m, I’m not gonna put it on. I love it. I’m, I’m, listen, I told him, I said, I will wear an OU shirt. If I have an all black shirt with OU on it, that’s it. Stipulation. I’m not wearing, I’m not wearing red. I’m not doing it, Donnie. It’s like my brother and cousins all went to A& M and.

They would give me like Texas A& M shirts, man. They would hit goodwill before I could hardly get back to Austin. Can’t wear no Texas A& M shirt. No. OU shirt in Austin. Not in Austin. You got a little,

[00:05:42] Billy Crawford: little burnt orange in your blood then. Man, it’s in my blood,

[00:05:45] Mark Henry: man. Oh. I cry. I still, I still cry when, when Texas lose.

[00:05:53] Donnie Maib: Horrible. I know we were up there this year. I hadn’t been to the game in a while. We got beat, obviously. I was a heartbreaker, man. We had it, but they took it, so it is what it is. But

[00:06:03] Mark Henry: you know what, man? Texas ran into a buzzsaw this year. Like, that Michael Penick’s kid, You, you look at what he did in that game.

He, if they played that game all over again, ain’t no way he could do that again. It was like somebody hitting two half a court shots to win a game, one at the half and one at the finish, it don’t happen. He just, man, he had the day

[00:06:30] Donnie Maib: of his life. Yeah, he was in the zone. I mean, he couldn’t be stopped. And that receiver was And Texas still had a chance to win.

And they weren’t dropping balls that day. So it was kind of a combination. Yeah,

[00:06:38] Mark Henry: it was just a great day for them. It wasn’t no fault of Texas’s, other than, you know, maybe Quinn could have threw the ball maybe a foot and a half lower at that last pass he threw. But I guarantee you, he done lost a lot of sleep over that pass.

And those are the ones that, that, that make you a better athlete and a better competitor. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m, I’m, I’m, like I said, I, I cry when I lose. Like it take me a while to get over a loss. So it’s better to put the work in and not feel that pain. And I know Quinn, if he, he, he seemed like one of those guys that’s a little salty and, and that, that’s, that’s put that on replay whenever you get tired, whenever you’re feeling a little full of yourself, like play that video again or that last pass, like if, if he drops that thing down a foot and a half, Mitchell catches and scores and Texas win.

So, you know, you got to stay humble. How do you feel about

[00:07:48] Billy Crawford: the, Longhorns going to the

[00:07:50] Mark Henry: SEC? I love it. Are you excited for that? I think that, Coach Sark did a good job of putting together a team. Some people think that it’s just about the individuals or it’s just about how much talent you got.

there’s been a lot of teams that had talent that didn’t win. You know, I mean, somebody could get hurt or they just get too full of themselves, whatever the factor is, the team with the best talent don’t always win. It’s the team that’s the toughest. It’s the team that that’s willing to sacrifice.

Like, I know, I know, sacrifice. I never When I was competing I never went on spring break. I ain’t never in college four years. Never went to spring break

[00:08:42] Donnie Maib: No, it’s part of your DNA though.

[00:08:43] Mark Henry: I Went home one Christmas and that was because I had already made the Olympic team and I didn’t have to go to the u. s Open or World University Games So I got to go home and it was weird, you know, like when you’re not working and you’re a great athlete, like you start to feel like you’re cheating your team or you’re cheating yourself.

Like that’s the level of competitiveness you have to have to be great. So you can put in good work and be good. You feel complacent at some points.

[00:09:20] Billy Crawford: You’re not doing much. Yeah.

[00:09:22] Mark Henry: I mean, I, I, I definitely would lose sleep. I didn’t lose very much. But when I went to the world championships and I would lose.

Like it just made me want to go home and work harder. And I did realize that people I was competing against was taking drugs. And in my case, the, the IOC was not very helpful because. They would suspend people for taking drugs, and then they would come back, like, stronger because once they tested positive, they took them off the drug testing protocols.

So they would go The

[00:10:09] Donnie Maib: rotation? Yeah,

[00:10:10] Mark Henry: they would go off and get stronger. And I, I started to think that they was getting caught on purpose. So like, you know, the year before the Olympics, they was off of the drug testing policies. So you know, cause being under suspension.

[00:10:25] Billy Crawford: And your first Olympics was at the end of the Cold War era with all them Eastern European countries, a lot of European countries still, you know, Doing government doping and stuff for the athletes.

[00:10:34] Mark Henry: I’m gonna put this in perspective to you. At the Junior World Championships, I got beat by Andre Chimerkin. I got the bronze, and, Andre Chimerkin won. He beat me by 20 kilos.

[00:10:50] Donnie Maib: That’s a large

[00:10:51] Mark Henry: amount. Yeah, that’s, that’s,

[00:10:52] Donnie Maib: that’s in those lifts. That’s a

[00:10:53] Mark Henry: lot. But that’s, you know, that’s under like 40 pounds, right?

Yeah, 42 pounds. That dude, the next year, I mean, I’m, I’m angry. I’m gonna get him. I snatched 180 2 5 and clean and jerk. 2 25. I’m ready. At the junior at, no, the, my, I was a senior year. Senior. Okay. Senior next year. Okay. He snatched 190 and clean jerk 235. He, he, he gained like, he beat me by like 60 kilos. Wow.

You don’t gain like that in a year. Not that short of a window. Especially at that

[00:11:43] Billy Crawford: level. At that level of athletics. Like when you

[00:11:44] Mark Henry: at the top, man, we nickel and diamond. It’s one, two kilos. Oh man, two and a half kilos. Yeah, it was awesome, I did it. Wow. 40 pounds, that level of an increase and come on Donnie.

And then, so when you point that out to the USOC, you know, and, and the IOC, they, they like, Hey, look. You better stop complaining. You’re gonna get the sport kicked out of the game. That’s what Thomas Aion said to me. You got, Mark, you gotta stop complaining. You’re gonna get the sport kicked out. No, y’all gonna get the sport kicked out.

Because y’all don’t let people, and I quit. You lost, potentially, the most famous weightlifter of all time. Naim Suli. Monga maybe is his name. If you mention his name. People at every corner of the world will know who it is. You mentioned my name. I could have stayed in lifting another four years,

[00:12:43] Donnie Maib: easy

[00:12:44] Mark Henry: minimum, and I would’ve probably, I probably would’ve got my numbers up to maybe a one, two 30, but I quit because it wasn’t fair.

[00:12:57] Billy Crawford: Is that why you transitioned mostly and you took the opportunity so fast for wwe? Think is ’cause this Yeah, I, I

[00:13:01] Mark Henry: went on and, and. And went to make, and I wasn’t never, I ain’t never make no money lifting. I did it out of love and respect of the game. Don’t make no money. That’s man’s work right there.

That’s man’s work. I had a job. I worked at the YMCA. I was a full time student.

I made $22,000 that year before the Olympics and nine one and train, and then I was on O job. So the Olympic Job Opportunities Program, they would match whatever you made. So I made 40 something thousand that year. I made $40,000 a month.

[00:13:43] Donnie Maib: Yeah. But again, like you, you had such a love for it. You know,

[00:13:47] Mark Henry: but that’s why it hurts so bad that the Olympic Committee and now you got Michael Phelps and people like that coming out and going, Hey, the International Gaming Commissions are not doing enough to, help the athletes because people in America, drug testing is pretty strong.

[00:14:08] Billy Crawford: Like

[00:14:10] Mark Henry: you would have to, you, you would have to be. You know, you, you have to be out there bad in America for us to come after you, but overseas they don’t, man, they like, if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying to win. They don’t care. They just, they pay the athletes. The government does. That’s winning at all costs though.

Right? Yeah. But you know what, man, you want to hear some bad news?

Four of the world champions in the super heavyweight category dead. It’s only one Olympic champion. In my weight class, still alive. I, I think Elijah Day. Oh, Lasha

[00:14:58] Billy Crawford: Talaqazi. Yeah. He’s the new guy, yeah. He’s

[00:15:00] Mark Henry: the only one still alive. Yeah, he’s young. Manfred Nerlinger. Gone. Short in his life, huh? Wow. And they all start dying around 50 because of heart attacks and, you know, stuff like that, because all them drugs.

Naeem Suleymangaloo, he was a dwarf, almost. huh. Ain’t no way he should have died of a massive heart attack at 46 years old. Oh my God, wow. With two babies.

[00:15:29] Donnie Maib: Wow. Yeah, that’s way young, yeah.

[00:15:33] Mark Henry: It’s just ridiculous. Listen, man, you keep that gold medal. I’d rather be alive.

[00:15:39] Billy Crawford: Lashatala Kazi, he’s the, he’s a, he’s the Olympic champion right now for the heavyweights.

And he’s, he’s six foot six. And I think he’s, he’s pushing 200 kilos, like 187 kilos. He’s a, he’s very big. He’s from Georgia. But yeah, I don’t know how much longevity he’ll have after his career. He’s only 29 years old right now. he’s chasing the 600 pound clean and jerk and a 500 pounds snatch.

[00:16:00] Mark Henry: I’ve seen him.

I’ve seen him lift and I just go, I think about Saturday Night Live when they did the all drug Olympics. . This dude is a science project. I mean, everyone’s, I ain’t hating. Yeah. Hey, if, if you want to put on a show, I’m a showman, you know, I’m, I’m in it for the money and I’m in it to entertain the people.

But if you’re going to do, if you’re going to compete against somebody, then you can’t, you can’t do drugs, you know, you can’t cheat to win, you know, like people talk about the, the Hollywood actors, you know, they take the steroids and all of the blood doping so they can get in that shape that you see in the movie, yeah.

[00:16:59] Billy Crawford: They’re showmen. Yeah,

[00:17:01] Mark Henry: they’re not competing against

[00:17:02] Billy Crawford: nobody. Yeah. And that’s what’s so impressive. I think about your career as well as you went from a, Olympic weightlifting background in a drug tested sport. Obviously people were cheating, but then you progress yourself. And even a couple of years later, you know, Dr.

Terry Todd, he started the Arnold straw man classic 2002, and that’s not a drug tested sport at all. And people have known the history of straw man from the eighties. And there’s been greats. Like John Paul Sigmundson have died. He died at 32 of a heart attack. First man ever won the world. Sean’s Wilson.

He

[00:17:28] Mark Henry: died

[00:17:29] Billy Crawford: and the fact that you were able to go and transition from a sport of Olympic weightlifting and then in the strong and dominated that level is that just speaks in parallel to itself.

[00:17:39] Mark Henry: I was telling you earlier before we came in here, I’m the only person walking the planet that has been a world champion in three things that have nothing to do with each other.

And people say, man. Like you must be crazy and I’m like, yes, I am. I hate losing so bad that if I pick something, I’m going to try to dominate at it, man, this, the podcasting world and radio world. My education was in kinesiology, right? Yeah, I got number one show in Sirius XM in sports Because I’m competitive.

I want to win

[00:18:32] Donnie Maib: so

[00:18:32] Mark Henry: good. You know, I’m talking about in life I want to be super dad super husband Whatever it is, I’m trying to win next level, and people don’t don’t live by that because it’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard. You gotta work.

[00:18:51] Donnie Maib: You gotta work. Yeah, and sacrifice. Okay, so that that’s such a rare mentality.

What do you see in athletes today? That’s different.

[00:19:02] Mark Henry: We live in the world of the chess beaters. You know, when I say to chess beaters, does a wide receiver go get one catch for 12 yards and he beating his chest, throwing, hitting his helmet, jumping up and down. You got one catch, bro. You might not get another ball thrown at you the rest of the game.

They glorify any moment they get. We, we, we glorify mediocrity. Like now, if you do what that kid Golden did against Texas last year at Houston, that now is playing for Texas. You got 12 catches, 140 yards, two or three touchdowns. Okay, I want to see you walk off the field. I’m number one. Hey, you can beat your chest.

You did that. That’s, that’s who I cheer for. If you, if you, if you reap the benefits. Then, yeah, you should get the reward, but we, we, we glorify people that are not, they not there yet. And, and, and these coaches have got to quit babysitting these kids and tell them, I want you to celebrate. I do, but you celebrate when I, when I give you the nod, Hey, you got it.

[00:20:26] Donnie Maib: Yeah.

[00:20:26] Mark Henry: But until then, don’t let me see you chest beating. I would be hard to coach. I never coached my kids. And nothing. I’ll pay the money for a Donnie Mae to be the strength coach. And then I’ll look in the back and I’ll go, Donnie, you need to finish this pull on that snatch or that clincher. You know, I might interject, but I ain’t gonna say nothing to them.

Because I want to be dad. I don’t want to be coach.

[00:20:56] Donnie Maib: That’s good wisdom. That’s good wisdom.

[00:20:58] Mark Henry: If some parents, they, they want to live vicariously through their kids, so they want to,

[00:21:05] Donnie Maib: they

[00:21:05] Mark Henry: watch Rocky too many times, they want to be Mick. You can win, Rock! They, they, they, they, they, they not cheerleaders, they, they’re, they’re pushing.

And the kids break and then they end up hating the sport that they play or the game that they play. I never did.

[00:21:27] Donnie Maib: Yeah, I was talking to some parents about this the other day. And you can have the, you can have the genetics, you can have the coaching, you can have the resources, but if you don’t have the drive and your, to your point, if your parents are pushing you and even in college or whatever, you are not going to make it.

It’s going to be short. Yeah. It’s going to be short run. And you’re

[00:21:47] Mark Henry: going to waste money.

[00:21:48] Donnie Maib: Yeah.

[00:21:49] Mark Henry: And I don’t like wasting money.

[00:21:51] Donnie Maib: Yeah. I mean, I, I kind of hear you talking about, no, for sure. You got to fall in love with the process too, though. That’s what I hear you saying a little bit, you know. I

[00:21:58] Mark Henry: do. I do love the.

getting up in the morning, get my hot tea, you know, I, I, I quit taking like, the fake sugar. So now I made simple syrup or I’ll mix like honey water and then I’ll put it in my tea. Like it’s a process and I look forward to that process. And when I trained, I was the same way. Our ritualistic gyms. We, I, I would get over to UT probably nine o’clock, 10 o’clock in the morning, I would train heavy, whether it’s the structural work, squats or back squats or deadlifts, or if I was doing strong man, we would do the loading part early.

And then later on, I would go, sometimes I wouldn’t even leave. I will, I will, man, I will bring food with me and I will eat and I will go to sleep down on the floor and the gym. And then I would wake up and I would train again and do technique because I looked at it like it was a job like I got put all I got to put the work in.

And I remember Governor Bush used to come in and work out. in the, in the gym and we used to have this routine all the time. Every time he would see me and I would see him like, what you looking at? He like, what you looking at? And then we started walking toward each other. Like we were going to fight.

And then one day the new guy showed up on his detail and he was like, stop. And threw his coat back. He was going to shoot me. I was like, Hey man,

[00:23:50] Billy Crawford: it’s better to be a smack down in the weight room.

[00:23:51] Mark Henry: You know me, bro. Like it got, it was tense. Wow. But the thing about Bush is he was a routine guy.

[00:24:02] Billy Crawford: Yeah. He had a ritual of a day.

He did him at the same time. Yep.

[00:24:08] Mark Henry: He trained the same amount of time, and he went out the same door, got in the car, the same, it was like when, when you great at something, you got, you gotta be, you gotta be a stickler for it, man. You can’t just get by on talent.

[00:24:23] Donnie Maib: Yeah, yeah.

[00:24:24] Mark Henry: You gotta be a little crazy.

[00:24:27] Donnie Maib: I’m curious to Or

[00:24:28] Mark Henry: excessive.

[00:24:29] Donnie Maib: Yeah. Mark, talk a little, I’d love to, cause I’ve seen you in this element. Yeah. You’re obviously the world’s strongest man, world champion in three sports. What was that like, that transition into WWE? What was that like? Like, what was it that drew you into that? And then like, what was that like?

[00:24:48] Mark Henry: My, my grandmother was a wrestling fan when I was a little kid.

So man, I love my granny. So I wanted to be with her cause she would cook for me. She was like, she was funny. Like, should have been on TV, funny. She was hilarious. And so I wanted to be around her all the time. So I would go to wrestling matches with her. Nobody else in my family watched wrestling, Donnie.

Nobody. That’s wild.

[00:25:20] Donnie Maib: Granny

[00:25:21] Mark Henry: does. I have never Got a WrestleMania ticket in 24 years for anybody in my family. Nobody asked. Nobody care. They don’t care. They like, Hey, man, I saw you on a commercial the other day for wrestling. That’s great, man. That’s it. It ain’t like, Oh, man. Hey, when y’all come to Houston, man, can you give me some tickets?

Yeah, I’ll give you Just Mark. And I love that, though. Like my family, they, they down for me just because I’m me, not because of what I could have done for them or, you know, I talked to my cousin, she, she got her son was one of the McDonald’s All Americans going to Memphis to play basketball. He’ll probably play in the NBA.

He driven, you know, like he, he, he wanted to be great. He told me when he was 12, I’m gonna be next year. That’s like, man, that’s a big talk. That’s, that’s a, that’s, that’s, that’s big talk. But you do know that I was more than talented, right? He’s like, Oh no, I’m going to be good. Watch. He good. And he wasn’t playing.

He cried when he lose. I watched him. I went to the state tournament three years in a row.

[00:26:50] Donnie Maib: Yeah.

[00:26:52] Mark Henry: And watch them play. And every year he got better, he got bigger, thank God. And now he’s at Memphis training with, Penny Hardaway and it’s going to be a great player, but it didn’t happen by accident. It is, is, is, is, he’s living.

You remember that book of purpose driven life? He lived in a purpose driven life. Like he, he feels like if, if I can, if, if I could do this, my mom don’t have to work no more. That’s his goal. Hey, when you trying to save somebody. So different level of, you know, they, my cousins, I love everybody, but I got a wife.

I can’t be buying people, houses and cars and putting all the kids through school, like I had two kids of my

[00:27:53] Donnie Maib: own. Yeah. Yeah, I told Mark the volleyball team we’re training the other day and I was talking about what you’re talking about that you got to have a dream and a purpose, but the bigger the dream, the more reasons you got to have to achieve it, you gotta have more reasons than just like I want to be, you know, famous or make money.

You know, it’s got to be more reasons than that.

[00:28:14] Mark Henry: Yeah, it’s, it’s way deeper than that. I mean, I love it. I saw Vassily Alexeyev when I was nine, like eight or nine, and I wanted to be him at nine. They threw roses at him. They glorified him. They glorified him. And I wanted that. I never prayed to God, God, please give me all the talent in the world.

I want to be rich. I ain’t never prayed it a day in my life still. Okay. Maybe that one time in Vegas. I never, I never prayed that prayer. It was like, man, I want to be famous. When you started, I want to be just like Alexia,

[00:29:01] Billy Crawford: when you started lifting, do you know that you would come to the heights and level that you were at, obviously, in today’s world, like when you started powerlifting through high school, and you started getting a lot of recognition by national magazines and coverage and stuff, do you think coming out of high school and kind of transition weightlifting that you’d have the career later down the road that you have today,

[00:29:18] Mark Henry: I didn’t think that I would have the career that I had, but I knew that I was going to be the greatest powerlifter ever.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the trajectory that I was on, man, I, my, my squat record just got broke this year by that kid in Louisiana. Yeah, I saw that. Like, it’s, it’s, it’s. How long has that

[00:29:39] Donnie Maib: stood?

[00:29:40] Mark Henry: It’s like 30 plus years. Oh, wow. That’s long. Just now I broke that record. Your other records are still standing though.

The total still stands. Yeah. But he broke the squat and, somebody broke the deadlift too. but, Gene Bell’s son. He was a 220 and a deadlift at 810 or 815 or something like that. But like, I, I wanted to be great. I wanted to be famous. I wanted people to see me and come up and shake my hand and get autographed.

I wanted to sign autographs. That was a big deal. Like, man, I went to the state tournament my sophomore year and one of the officials came over with the bill. That You know, they had all of the talent, all of the athletes on it, and he was like, Hey, can you sign this for me? Bro, I felt so good. I felt, hey, you might as well wrote me a check for a million dollars.

[00:30:45] Donnie Maib: That’s an incredible story.

[00:30:46] Mark Henry: Is that not nuts? Yeah, yeah. How does the littlest thing make you feel special? One autograph

[00:30:53] Billy Crawford: you didn’t care about the money to care about like you want to inspire the people and to show them that you did it for the love of the sport and that you just want to be, you know, a great athlete overall.

Yeah, I

[00:31:05] Mark Henry: wanted, I wanted to be, I wanted to be highly regarded like I, and then when I came to Austin, then I was around Dr. Terry Todd, who Terry was the first strength coach. There was not such a thing as a strength coach before him. Like, Terry traveled the world, like, you remember the movie Conan?

Conan the Barbarian, yeah. And, and he was like, I never, I never traveled for spoils. The only thing I ever collected was swords. I wanted to steal, I wanted to travel the world and beat everybody and take their swords. Never did a, the, the, the crews took the money and they, they robbed and pillaged after they conquered.

All he did was take the general sword. Taking a man’s sword is taking a man’s dignity back in those days. You know what I’m saying? So like, that’s, that was Dr. Todd. That was Terry. Yeah. Terry was taking swords. Yep. He was traveling all over the country, teaching. Every university in America, they should have a statue of Dr.

Todd on his campus because he was the one that said that every sport needs a trainer that trains them for the activity that they do. Come on, that’s enough. He had to do all the accomplishments that he did write all the books. He wrote, you go in the North end of the football stadium. On the fifth floor, they got the Letcher Stark Center.

That’s his collection.

[00:32:51] Billy Crawford: Yeah. It’s the biggest privately owned collection in biggest

[00:32:54] Mark Henry: private collection in the world. Yeah. You can go in there and see Muhammad Ali gloves. Jack Johnson gloves. Some of the first ever barbells and lifting equipment in the world. Man, the first treadmill ever made is in there.

First elliptical. First, stationary bike. I mean, just, like, it’s, it’s crazy. It’s hard to fathom when you walk through there, all of the history, I mean, from Andre the Giant and wrestling, and the history of wrestling, all the way back to the, the late 1800s, early 1900s, the mighty Gamma, and people like, it’s so much about the world of physical culture that Terry and Jan did.

And they put that on me, you know, it’s like, if you don’t learn, I mean, you was an idiot or you was just damn lazy. You just didn’t have no ambition or nothing, no interest in it. I loved it. Like, Terry loved it. Terry saw that he was seeing my face when I started talking about these historically great people and I go, I could do it.

Terry said, no, you can’t. I was like, yes, I can. What? Show me. Where is it? Like, we traveled. I was, I was Conan. I lifted the Denny stones. The only thing that I didn’t get to do And that was because Terry was scared I was going to hurt myself without, there’s a, anchor in Nova Scotia by a guy named John McCaskill and he died lifting that anchor.

It stabbed him in the side when it got off balance. He tripped. I said, I ain’t tripping, Terry. I ain’t going to trip. Terry was like, no, we’re not going to do it. He never let me do it. Wow. What’s the anchor way? It’s It’s like 760 or something like that. But at that point I was lifting 900 pounds. So you got to make it relative.

You who you talking to? You see, I get a little, I get a little juice to fire it up. I’m easy to get fired up, man. When it comes to like competing about something, I knew I could do it. And

[00:35:11] Billy Crawford: it’s historical stuff like

[00:35:13] Mark Henry: everything historical. I went and did it. They said the Thomas Inch used to be called the unliftable and it’s the Thomas Inch now because I lifted over my

[00:35:23] Billy Crawford: head.

You’re the first person to do it. The only person to ever do it. 172 pounds.

[00:35:26] Mark Henry: There was three people that lifted Apollon’s wheels.

[00:35:31] Donnie Maib: Yeah.

[00:35:32] Mark Henry: Norbert Schumanski. I’ve seen you do this. John Davis. And they said that Adolf Apollon did it, but there’s no footage or no proof that he actually did. I lifted it three times the same day for each one of the people.

It’s like a workout. I’m on the stage in front of 40, 000 people. And it was time too, was it? Yeah, and I danced in the middle of me lifting. I put, I could have done it four times.

[00:36:08] Billy Crawford: That’s a cherry on top of the competition right there. Holy cow.

[00:36:11] Mark Henry: So it’s like me, me doing my collection of, of things. I have no peers.

I was, I was a lot like LeBron. Like LeBron said, the, the most profound thing I ever heard him say is, man, I’m not competing really against the people that I’m on the court with. I’m competing against ghosts.

[00:36:31] Donnie Maib: Yeah, it’s true. And that’s what I was doing. History.

[00:36:33] Mark Henry: I was, the history book is what I was after.

And you can, man, people can say, Oh, well, this guy, he was better than Mark Henry at this overall collection of everything. It ain’t never been nobody better than me. And I thank God every day that he made me the way that he made me because. I was willing to go and put that work in. Nobody else wasn’t willing to do that.

I, when I was lifting those implements, the Africa stone, the venture stone, there’s a, a dumbbell called a circus bell. What is that Mark? It’s a 220 pound dumbbell. And I lifted it with both hands. It’s got a two and a half inch handle. I lifted it with both hands. And the, I was like, I gotta make one bigger.

I wanna Mark Henry Bell. So we made a bail that’s like 270 pounds. We, it, we meant for it to be 250 pounds. Right. But me and Terry’s calculations was off . , whoops. And like, I lifted it one time and then when I lifted it, we put it in this box. Now you can’t get it out the box. It’s in a, it’s in a treasure chest now.

It’s in, it’s in the electric start center. It’s in the north end of the stadium. I’m the only person ever on earth to lift that. It’s Thor’s hammer, man. 270

[00:38:16] Donnie Maib: pounds. Yeah, it’s stuck to the ground. Like it’s

[00:38:18] Mark Henry: in that box, and you, you’d have to cut the box open to get it out. It’s been in that box since y’all put it in there.

It’s been in that box since I put it in there. Wow.

[00:38:27] Donnie Maib: I remember those, some of those days you were training for some of that, because we stored the Apollo wheel in the back. Y’all spot me sometimes. Yeah, in the weight, in the football weight room. You would I remember Billy first time I ever saw him like really lift.

I was a young coach here at Texas He had like eight plates and some change and make it like jingle like at the top and I was like who is this? Human being don’t you just come down there and score you different days. You’d come train down that weight room Yeah,

[00:38:56] Mark Henry: and what was the other big, Big Bruce,

[00:39:05] Donnie Maib: Big Bruce, Ship, Mad

[00:39:08] Mark Henry: Dog, You, Terry, I would have like six spotters, and then all the UT football players used to, they used to like, like, fan club.

Oh, my God, how much is that? And then I can’t remember who it was. I think it was, might’ve been Tony Braggins. Tony Braggins was like, okay, this is a 45 and 45 and a 45. Shit, I don’t know. It’s a lot. And I’m trying to focus. And he made me laugh in the middle of me being about to lift 900 pounds. And I still lifted it.

[00:39:49] Donnie Maib: Tony Brackins, that’s so funny. He had

[00:39:51] Mark Henry: me laughing, man. He

[00:39:52] Donnie Maib: couldn’t do the math.

[00:39:53] Mark Henry: He was like, it’s a 45, and a 45, and a 45, and a 40. It’s a lot.

Somebody get him away from the bar. Please. I love him though. Hey, he a man of God, man. He preach now. Like, you know, I’ve actually been to their church. man, that dude is special. That’s great.

[00:40:19] Donnie Maib: Mark, what, how, how did, just going to your childhood a little bit, I’m just curious, growing up in Sillsbee, right?

Yeah.

[00:40:26] Donnie Maib: How did that influence who you would become? I mean, cause for our listeners, Mark is like, Mark, you’re the, we, me and Billy were talking about this. You’re like the most successful guy I’ve ever met in the history of the world. One of these top outlawed guys, but you’re so humble, hardworking, and you love people.

I love people. But you don’t find that today. It’s hard to find those combinations. So how did growing up influence who you’ve become today?

[00:40:53] Mark Henry: My mother said it takes a, it takes a village of people to raise a kid. I grew up in an environment where. I avoided racism because of my greatness, like very few black people get to walk into a situation where you so well respected that people that I’ve heard underhand racism that would make you laugh.

But it was painful. Like, man, you good for one of them, shit like that. So, I grew up in an environment where there was racism, but a lot of it never touched me because I brought everybody together. I was everybody’s kid.

[00:41:41] Billy Crawford: When you go back home to Sillsby, are you a hometown hero and people still look up to you?

Oh my God, yeah.

[00:41:45] Mark Henry: Man, I still sponsor our Little Dribblers. That is awesome. Like, it’s, it’s, if they need something, they know to call me. Because I’m always going to support the kids. And weightlifting

[00:41:56] Billy Crawford: and powerlifting, do you go back to a lot of, I guess local meets and competitions in the state of Texas?

No.

[00:42:02] Mark Henry: Man, I have not been to a powerlifting meet since 97. And I have not been to an Olympic weightlifting competition. I went to one. I went to the world championships in Houston. right before COVID. And, I went to that only because I was working with the Houston sports authority. I was helping Janice Burke and because they had the world championship coming to Houston.

That was the only reason I did it because I was so soured on the Olympic weightlifting world. Didn’t come to my aid when, when in 96. And I snatched 80, 182. 5 and clean jerk 225 leading up until going to the games. Then I get to the games I snatch 82.5. Alright, I’m finna do, I missed 180 5. Tore my intercostals and then I got hurt and I could only do the opener.

200 kilos was where they started the bar. No warmup, clean. They, they spraying ice spray on me and I’m just in so much pound. I don’t know if you ever tore the muscles in between your ribs. It felt like you could reach in there and grab something. That’s how bad it burned and hurt. And I was like, they were like, Mark, I know you hurt, but if you lift this, our team will get 11 points and we’ll place in the top 10 overall for the first time since the seventies.

[00:44:03] Donnie Maib: Yeah. And I was

[00:44:04] Mark Henry: like,

it wasn’t about me at that point. And that’s when I’m at my best when it’s not about me, the focus ain’t on me. I’m at my best when I’m, I’m working for other folks. And that’s what I did. I went out there and no warmup, 200 kilos. Go grab 440 pounds and clean it and then jerk it overhead and hold it. I got two white lights and one red, because on this side where the rib tore, where the cartilage tore, my arm was doing this.

And he said that I wasn’t. stable, which I probably wasn’t, but I made the lift and our team placed 10th overall at the Olympics.

[00:44:53] Donnie Maib: Incredible. Yeah.

[00:44:54] Mark Henry: And that was more valuable to me than winning the gold medal. And I knew I wasn’t going to win the gold medal when I went there. Because I saw people in the warmup doing crazy stuff.

I watched somebody miss the 240 cleaning jerk as they last, as they, they last warmup, they opened that 240. They get it. Yeah, bro. Like it was. It was wild to see people snatch 200 kilos in the warm up room. I’m like, 200 kilos snatch?

[00:45:43] Donnie Maib: Yeah, oh yeah.

[00:45:46] Mark Henry: Man, I thought I was doing good with that 182. 5. I was so proud of myself.

[00:45:53] Donnie Maib: Yeah, that’s a different load.

[00:45:55] Mark Henry: So, like, it was, it was

[00:45:58] Donnie Maib: How those guys treat you, Mark? Man, I’m so

[00:46:02] Mark Henry: well respected in the world of lifting. I did a fundraiser here in Austin. It was awesome. at the Van Zandt for the I’m on the board now of the U. S. weightlifting foundation, and we raised like 140 grand for the athletes and I hadn’t, I hadn’t been to a competition.

I didn’t know nobody’s names. I did it because it was the right thing to do. And the people that do work when ain’t nobody watching. Them the ones I like to hang out with, you know, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll sit in there and I’ll ask questions, man, why you do that? Nobody else wasn’t going to do it. Them the people I hang out with,

not the chess beaters.

[00:46:56] Donnie Maib: No, no, no. They out there today.

[00:46:58] Mark Henry: I watch the chess beaters though. I like being entertained if they really good.

[00:47:04] Donnie Maib: Hey, man, we hope you enjoyed that interview, that first part with Mark Henry, man, that was brilliant. Yeah. The physical feats that he has accomplished as an athlete are just mind blowing.

So, great episode, first session. Billy, what’d you think?

[00:47:20] Billy Crawford: Talking to Mr. Mark Henry about his career, you know, he kind of flew through his accolades and things he’s accomplished. I don’t think we can really touch base on everything. Just, we just don’t have enough time to be honest. This man has accomplished a lot, but, episode two is going to line up to really, you know, hone in on just not his accolades and his athletic career, but also his personal life of who he is, you know, as a, as a person.

[00:47:39] Donnie Maib: Yeah. And to your point, If you probably can pick up, he’s definitely a, he’s a personality. He’s a character. You can see why he excelled so well in WWE. Not only is he strong, but he’s a showman too. He knows how to engage in, in, help people focus on what they’re doing. And so anytime we’re around him, he just draws the best out of me.

I know he does the same for you. So, Hey, hope you guys enjoyed that first part. Don’t forget to tune in again. This is an Olympics. Special edition. We’ll do part two of the interview with Mark Henry here soon. Thank you guys for tuning in. Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team behind the team podcast for future episodes, go to iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast, or Stitcher.

We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content. So if you have a moment, please go to iTunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re doing. I’m Donnie Mae and thanks so much for tuning

in.